Hope for the Future

At the beginning of June, Mercy Ships volunteer surgeons screened dozens of women for obstetric fistula repair. Twenty-seven of them were selected as fit to receive free operations to restore them to new hope and new life.

Obstetric fistula is a condition that results from obstructed childbirth, often causing the death of the baby being born. The women then become incontinent and are often shunned by their communities and families. An all-too-common occurrence in countries with inadequate medical care, the women face unparalleled isolation and shame.

The World Health Organisation estimates that approximately 2 million women have fistulas and that approximately 100,000 women develop fistulas each year. It is most common in sub-Saharan African and Asia, though fistulas can and do occur anywhere there is inadequate emergency obstetric care.

The youngest woman at the screening was 21 and had suffered with her condition for 5 years. Her husband abandoned her after the traumatic childbirth, so she now lives with her parents and carries an oppressive burden far too heavy for her young years. The oldest woman – who does not know her own age – has been incontinent for 40 years.

But for them and the others, the oppression will soon fall away. Hope and healing has arrived in the form of nurses and doctors and a converted train ferry focused on serving the world’s forgotten poor.